Athletic Director Career
Osborne and the 1997 national championship team were the guests of honor at the Huskers' 2007 Homecoming game on October 13. Just two days after the resulting 45–14 loss to Oklahoma State – Nebraska's worst home loss since being shut out 31–0 by Missouri on November 1, 1958 – athletic director Steve Pederson was fired. On October 16, 2007, Osborne was announced as the interim athletic director, following Pederson's departure. On November 24, 2007, Osborne fired head coach Bill Callahan following a 5–7 season. Osborne appointed himself the interim head coach so that he could perform recruiting duties while remaining in compliance with NCAA rules. On December 2, 2007, Osborne named Bo Pelini the new head coach of Nebraska. In 2010, Osborne ended Nebraska's long-standing relationship with the Big 12 Conference and accepted an invitation for Nebraska to become the twelfth member of the Big Ten Conference.
On December 19, it was announced that Osborne would remain as athletic director through June 30, 2010, effectively moving him from interim status to permanent. Osborne will be paid $250,000 per year and will manage Nebraska's 23-sport program. Osborne later agreed to continue as athletic director after 2010, with his position to be reviewed annually. On September 26, 2012, Osborne announced his retirement as Athletic Director, effective January 1, 2013.
Read more about this topic: Tom Osborne
Famous quotes containing the words athletic director, athletic, director and/or career:
“Short of a wholesale reform of college athletics—a complete breakdown of the whole system that is now focused on money and power—the women’s programs are just as doomed as the men’s are to move further and further away from the academic mission of their colleges.... We have to decide if that’s the kind of success for women’s sports that we want.”
—Christine H. B. Grant, U.S. university athletic director. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A42 (May 12, 1993)
“The only athletic sport I ever mastered was backgammon.”
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—Connie Zastoupil, U.S. mother of Quentin Tarantino, director of film Pulp Fiction. Rolling Stone, p. 76 (December 29, 1994)
“My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.”
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